Saturday, November 10, 2012

November 10

"I hope the broad is well."

--A valued PDPBR subscriber, of the conservative conviction and of the male gender, commenting with the above quotation, a blunt and somewhat bitter observation aspiring to be ironic, on the Washington Post article on the resignation of CIA Director David H. Petraeus, which notes, "The collapse of the dazzling career of CIA Director David H. Petraeus was triggered when a woman with whom he was having an affair sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to him, according to three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode. The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and help tracking down the sender, according to the officials. The FBI investigation traced the threats to Paula Broadwell, a former military officer and a Petraeus biographer, and uncovered explicit e-mails between Broadwell and Petraeus, the officials said."

"All In" author Broadwell image, with her book on Petraeus placed below her arm, from; "All in the Family" image from

Obama Won, But The Victory Is America - mrnrc2010.com: "Obviously Barack Obama is a product of unparalleled political and media throughout the world. The phenomenon is global and local at the same time. It resonates with many people. But do not be fooled. ... If the main character of the series is obviously the major asset of the brand America, this is a real public diplomacy strategy as only the USA are likely to lead today.

Wherever it is possible and useful, live with people far beyond traditional diplomacy. Just as Hollywood and the rest of the industry culture and entertainment discharge myth constantly revisited America and they recycle the stories of other people. As well as its literature is broadcast that our universities continue to attract students from around the world." Image from entry

Don Pablo Quijote and the Silk Road - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "At the start of a new adventure, our favorite public diplomacy knight errant Don Pablo Quijote is charged with escorting the Dulcinea Dellas across the wide expanse that is La Manchastan. Our hero lay in the reins as he set out on a bluegrass adventure across the Silk Road." See also: (1) (2) (3).

Social Media and Resilience in the Face of Hurricane Sandy - Lauren Brodsky, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "While we are again amazed by the power of social media to connect us, many societies remain digitally disconnected. As these societies fall deeper into the digital divide, they miss some of the most valuable possibilities of human connection in our global age. In order to demonstrate the value of social media during times of local crisis, public diplomacy organizations must broadcast globally the story of the online efforts after Sandy. There are two reasons for this – the first is to tell a story of what is best about America. Organizations such as Voice of America have been telling America’s story, from various angles, since the dawn of the Cold War.

This mission remains important - by telling our story we humanize our society to those behind an iron curtain of disinformation. Second, by demonstrating the non-political purposes of social media, we give citizens of closed media societies a safer way to demand this technology." Image from

An exercise in mapping #digitaldiplomacy - adpinkerton, rhulgeopolitics.wordpress.com: "Digital Diplomacy—the process by which national representatives use social media to make productive, personal and interactive connections with domestic and international populations—is changing the complexion of diplomatic culture and practice in the early 21st century. This was the key concern, and opportunity, that underpinned the Digital Diplomacy Mapping Exercise that I attended on 9 November. The one-day workshop was an extraordinary meeting of representatives from Embassies and High Commissions, the European Parliament, as well as media organisations, PR agencies and even a smattering of academics. The premise of the event was to try and better understand whether, and how, social media is influencing world affairs and global geopolitics, whilst showcasing mechanisms for verifying, mapping and visualising social media. ... While digital diplomacy may permit selective connectivity between diplomats, ministers and officials (intellectuals of statecraft) with ‘everyday’ citizens, these connections (rather like processes of globalisation) are unequal and contingent on issues of access and availability. In addition, issues of trust, reliability and reputation—as organisations like the BBC World Service, Voice of America and the British Council have learnt over many decades—are subject to significant variations through time and space. They are hard won and readily lost. Far from representing the ‘end of geography’, digital diplomacy requires a sensitive and critical understanding of place, space and global geopolitics

By wrecking RFE/RL, and especially Radio Liberty, Korn and Ragona have subverted not only the mission of the radios, but ruined their very capability of recovering from the damage – to say nothing of the harm they have done to the radios’ decades-long reputations." Image from entry

CBAAC’s fostering cultural diplomacy for Nigeria, says Babawale - ngrguardiannews.com: "Not even the paucity of fund that the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) has had to grapple with in recent time as well as the Hurricane Sandy that ravaged certain part of the United States of America few days before the hosting of the international conference (October 29 to November 1, 2012) could dissolve the will to go ahead with the yearly programme. Director General/CEO of CBAAC, Prof. Tunde Babawale declared in this brief online chat that the outcome of the conference justified the resources expended on it."

Promoting Traditional Festivals As Revenue Booster - Florence Utor, ngrguardiannews.com: "Nigeria is blessed with abundant resources and cultural festivals that reflect the country’s diverse cultures and rich heritage. Among such spiritual enactments and communion are the Eyo festival, Calabar Christmas Festival, Argungu Fishing Festival, Durbar, New Yam, Osun Osogbo, to mention a few. There is no gainsaying that these cultural festivals, if properly harnessed can pull in imaginable revenue for the country and enhance tourism, but unfortunately, not much has been done to convert these assets into economic wealth. This was the thrust of discourse at the quarterly national workshop on Repositioning Nigeria Cultural Workers for Improved Productivity held last week in Lagos. The National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) organized it. ... In his Festivals as a Vehicle for Nigeria’s Cultural Diplomacy, the Deputy Director, NICO, Oladipo Kajaiye, used Osun Osogbo, Eyo, Argungu and the Dubar festivals as events that could easily serve as vehicle for cultural diplomacy. He also made suggestions on how such activities and culture workers within this area can benefit from proper planning; implementation and packaging of festivals for the realisation of effective cultural diplomacy. He said organisation of festivals would bring more financial gain to communities and the country at large. Kajaiye said cultural festival would always give room to soft diplomacy that would make the challenges of hard diplomacy, which is the core of foreign policy much easier. The challenges of staging festivals in the 21st century digital age are not insurmountable. Federal, state and local government must cooperate in the areas of planning, publicity, packaging, quality and infrastructure. Festivals, apart from being vehicles for cultural diplomacy, could serve as foreign exchange earner. In this case, we see them contributing to what can be termed 'festival tourism.' In the paper, Promoting Traditional Festivals for Cultural Tourism, Law Ikay Ezeh, lecturer and Director, Administration and Human Resources, NICO, lamented the negligence of the art and culture sector by the government."

The Last Three Feet: Bridging the Gap through Education Exchange - worldteachnow.blogspot.com: "My Master’s Degree says 'Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy.' No, I am not a lawyer. No, I am not a diplomat. Yes, it makes sense that I work in international education development with such a degree. The link between diplomacy and education is not an obvious one. We usually think of diplomacy as meetings between high-ranking members of governments or career diplomats to determine economic, political, and security policies, and education as teachers and students in classrooms around the world learning about math, language, arts, and sciences. But there’s an approach to diplomacy that engages the public in foreign countries, not other diplomats; this is called public diplomacy. Public diplomacy supports international exchange programs for teachers, students, and leaders around the globe. The most famous of these programs is the Fulbright. While not administered directly by the U.S. State Department (that way they cannot be accused of propaganda), this program and many, many others fall under the purview of U.S.public diplomacy at the State Department. When talking about international relations and power, we tend to automatically think of power in terms of economics, politics, and military - hard power, not the soft power that comes from culture and education.

Joseph Nye, who coined the term 'soft power,' describes it as the ability to attract other nations to your policies [sic] rather than coerce them. By promoting educational and leadership exchanges, governments encourage not only knowledge of other cultures by their general public but also understanding. This understanding can help build positive relationships between nations. Despite what we can learn about other nations and people via the internet, television, and movies, our knowledge lacks connection with individuals from those places. As the famous reporter and head of U.S. Public Diplomacy [sic] Edward R. Murrow said, 'The real crucial link in the international exchange is the last three feet, which is bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another' [sic]. Through education exchange programs, governments are able to bridge those last three feet to create personal connections that increase their soft power and thus improve their standing in the international community. So the next time you’re chatting with an exchange student or in the midst of an adventure in a distant land, remember the importance of the last three feet, the learning that happens across them, and the long-term effects on both of your perceptions of the other. - By Kali den Heijer, WorldTeach Program Manager." Uncaptioned mage from article

November 13, 2012: Hearts and Minds: U.S. Engagement with Iran and Afghanistan - Northeastern University Open Classroom: " Speakers: Dr. Kimberly Jones - Afghanistan and the U.S.: the Hearts and Minds in Context – background to the current conflict; key challenges faced, including the interconnections between militants, governance, corruption, drug trafficking, and, perhaps, US violations

This Week’s Reading - Noah Berlatsky, Utilitarian Review: "I read John Rieder’s excellent book Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, and read a preview for review of Justin Hart’s book about public diplomacy Empire of Ideas."

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Meet Ben Barry, Facebook’s Minister Of Propaganda - He May Be the Man Behind Facebook’s Actual Little Red Book, but the Cultural Czar Heading the Company’s Analog Research Lab is More than Thrilled to Let Employees Create Their Own Cultural Destinies: Like the below:

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About Me

a Princeton PhD, was a US diplomat for over 20 years, mostly in Eastern Europe, and was promoted to the Senior Foreign Service in 1997. For the "Open World Leadership Center Trust Fund" program, he lectures to its participants on the topic of "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United." Currently affiliated with Georgetown University, he writes and shares ideas about public diplomacy. He is particularly interested in the relationship between public diplomacy and propaganda.
The papers of his deceased father -- poet and diplomat John L. Brown -- are stored at Georgetown University Special Collections at the Lauinger Library. A partial description of these papers (some 80 boxes of material, valuable to researchers interested in post-WWII U.S.-European cultural relations) is available online.
This blog is dedicated to him, Dr. John Lackey Brown, who wrote in the Foreign Service Journal (1964): "The CAO [Cultural Affairs Officer] soon comes to realize that his job is really a form of love-making and that making love is never really successful unless both partners are participating." These wise and tender words were written years before "soft power" was ever coined.